Coopers Kits Questions... (lots need HELP!!!)

[AWKBrewing13]

hey guy i had a couple questions on the coopers kits.

One recipie from their website said
-One can ESB
-Brew enhancer 1
-200 g Molasses

I called a local HBS and they adviced NOT using the Molasses. Use a golden syrup and DME.

I was thinking about using dark brown sugar and light DME. Thoughts? and how much would I use of each

NEXT ONE

I LOVE OATMEAL STOUT
If one were in a pinch for time and money could one use a Cooper prehopped can of stout and add in Flaked oatmeal somehow? And add light DME for body
Maybe even a little lactose to sweeten it a bit?

What kind of yeast would you guys use with each? I wast thinking Safale 04 i think it is thats english ale yeast.

 

[Yooper]

I'm no fan of Cooper's so I really can't give you much advice on the additives.

However, I can tell you that just adding oatmeal won't do anything except cause a starch haze, as oats must be mashed with a base grain to break up the starch and be used successfully in beer. You can easily do an oatmeal stout as a partial mash recipe, though!

For yeast, I think S04 would be perfect!

 

[AWKBrewing13]

quite honestly i want to switch to all grain and do that. beer is better and more control over final product. i had a cool chance to help out a local brewery for a morning brew day.

but im a broke ass college student. technically i still a better stove.

 

[unionrdr]

I stopped using the brew enhancers with the cooper's cans myself. I like to add plain DME in the color range needed for the particular style I'm going for. I used a cooper's OS dark ale can with 3lbs of Munton's plain amber DME & a couple ounces of hops. It got a vanilla cream sort of flavor to it. Along with a ruby red cast when the light shown through it.
Or the OS Draught with 3lbs of Munton's plain light DME for a base to make an APA or IPA,depending on the hop schedule. It gets a nice amber orange color,with light toasty/bready malt flavors. Just a couple examples from my notebook. Brown sugar,demerara sugar,& other more exotic sugars can be used to get different flavors,but I wouldn't add more than 250-300g to the batch. Don't want to dry it out too much.

 

[AWKBrewing13]

Awesome tips... Thank you guys. I think one thing is too is that I try to gather a lot of info from here and then just experiment... but i havent read up enough literature i think just to understand some simple basics of what makes a good base LME and DME difference (i read that post the other day) etc etc.

quick ? Partial boil is like brewers best kit where you only boil 2.5 gallons right?

So flavor would change with full boil recipe (boil all 5 and top off) right?

while on the boil subject. if i boil all 5 gal and some water boils off then i top it off with water to get exactly 5 gallons wouldnt it dilute flavor? or am I way off

 

[Yooper]

You can top off your boil with water, that's fine, whether you boil 2.5 gallons or 5 gallons. Just make sure you use chlorine/chloramine free water because fermenting with chlorinated water tastes sort of like plastic when the beer is done.

I'd recommend a better quality kit than those cooper's kits, even for a broke college student! I've used the Brewer's Best kits with good results- just make sure they are fresh and you buy them in a store with good turnover or order them.

Some of the best extract kits I ever did were some from austinhomebrew.com. About $30 or so, but they have great "clone" kits and other kits (hundreds and hundreds of them!) and they are good quality ingredients, fresh hops, fresh grains, and they have excellent instructions. If you can make a pot of coffee, you can brew one of those extract and grains kits. They make far better beer than the cooper's kits, in my experience.

 

[AWKBrewing13]

So is the difference with partial boil and full boil. with full you are going the whole 5 ?

also is that true that DME is a better quality product than LME for extract recipes?

 

[Yooper]

So is the difference with partial boil and full boil. with full you are going the whole 5 ?

also is that true that DME is a better quality product than LME for extract recipes?

Yes, a partial boil is usually done by people who don't have a high enough output burner to boil over 5 gallons of wort and don't have a way to chill 5 gallons of wort. (Usually, you need a wort chiller or some other way to chill 5 gallons of boiling liquid, while you can chill 2.5 gallons of boiling wort in an ice bath in the sink until it gets under 80 degrees and then add cold water to top up to 5 gallons and bring the temperature in the 60s).

Fresh LME is fine to use. It's the canned stuff that isn't so great. Most big homebrew stores sell LME in plastic jugs (like milk jugs) that they pour out fresh with a purchase and it's got nitrogen to protect the LME. The canned stuff tends to not be as good, and more likely to have a twangy taste to it.

My preference for ease of measuring is DME, but you have to keep it dry and cool or it hardens into bricks!

 

[AWKBrewing13]

i have done a few brewers best kit actually. First summer ale (good but ABV was low and I oxidized it a bit i think from transferring) Pale ale (good but a little yeasty not sure why) and an Ocktoberfest that I just kegged. Im hoping its not the smackpack yeasts that made the pale ale too yeasty because I used that for the ocktoberfest.

I have a coopers kit i just want to use then I want to move on to something else.

Does full boil generally brew a better tasting beer?
Can you do that with the Brewers Best kit (even though it says use 2.5 then add 2.5)

 

[Yooper]

Sure, you can do a full boil in any beer, even if the instructions assume a smaller 2.5 gallon boil. Generally, boiling a larger volume does improve the beer because there is less change of carmelizing the wort and having the taste impacted by mailliard reactions.

 

[AWKBrewing13]

maillard reactions? i believe i should look that up lol

 

[Shooter]

If you are doing a partial boil, I would go with half the extract at the start of the boil and then add the other half, take it off the heat first, in the last ten minutes. Of course, this assumes you are adding hops for a full sixty minute boil. The canned kits are a different beast.

 

[unionrdr]

Unless it's pre-hopped extract,then never boil it! It boils off the hop aroma/flavors. And LME darkens when boiled over the course of a full boil.

 

[AWKBrewing13]

for this coopers kit (ESB) i was going to add in a cup or two of brown sugar and DME. Should I use amber or Light? and how much?

 

[unionrdr]

I used 500g of light plain DME in my English Bitter. Maybe 200-250g of brown sugar would be nice. Don't wanna add too much sugar & dry it out. Wouldn't be too style. English Bitters are typically malty ales,with low carbonation to bring that quality out.

 

[AWKBrewing13]

thanks. i just called the my LHBS they said 2.2. I was thinking 1 pound light 1 pound amber a cup or two or brown sugar? thoughts?

 

[unionrdr]

If you add 1 kilogram (2.202lbs) of any sugar,you're going to have a thin bodied,high ABV beer that lacks flavor & mouth feel. Hence my recommendation of weighing out 250 grams or so of sugar with 500g of plain light DME (454g=1lb).

 

[AWKBrewing13]

I meant one pound Amber DME and one pound Light DME and add a cup or two of dark brown sugar.

 

[AWKBrewing13]

I meant one pound Amber DME and one pound Light DME and add a cup or two of dark brown sugar.

 

[unionrdr]

Or 2lbs of plain amber DME,& 1C of the dark brown sugar.

 

[AWKBrewing13]

doing the amber will do what to the overall product? sweeter more malty body?

 

[PT Ray]

I'm assuming we're talking about Coopers English Bitter as I don't believe they offer an ESB. I've tried this kit with amber extract, wheat extract, cane sugar and with a mini-mash consisting of 3.5 lbs of Pale Ale malt. I've found this kit does very well with just 1-1.5 lbs of additional fermentables made to 5 gallons. One of my preferred methods is just adding 1.25 lbs of cane sugar fermented at 66 degrees. If you want use extract any light or wheat should do just fine. It came out fine with amber extract, just didn't like it as well.

 

[AWKBrewing13]

Heres the final recipe i literally just did

1 Can Coopers English Bitter
1 packed cup dark brown sugar
1 pound Light DME
1 pound Amber DME
Safale 04

Heat 2.5 gallons water to almost boil (sanitize) then let cool (I let cool to 120)
Add in all ingredients while stirring
Make sure completely dissolved
Put kettle in ICE Bath
Pour contents in fermenter
Top to 5 gal
Aerate, Pitch Yeast, and Seal (date and mark on Notecard)

FERM Temp 66F

 

[AWKBrewing13]

O.g. 1.052

 

[RM-MN]

quite honestly i want to switch to all grain and do that. beer is better and more control over final product. i had a cool chance to help out a local brewery for a morning brew day.

but im a broke ass college student. technically i still a better stove.

Just how broke are you and how badly would you like a good oatmeal stout? You've helped at a brewery so you kind of know the process. Why not look into "brew in a bag" and doing a half size batch on the stovetop? The extra cost is the price of a pair of paint strainer bags (I think I paid less than $5 and they come 2 per package) and the grains. I put out another about $20 for a grain grinding mill which works fine for "brew in a bag" since a stuck sparge is avoided and the finer grind makes fast and more efficient conversion possible.

 

[AWKBrewing13]

well right now I dunno what im going to do. I am one of those guys that does something then before he really KNOWS HOW tries to improve it prematurely before ever knowing the basics. So heres the plan...

See how this coopers comes out.
Do maybe one more
Switch back to my brewers best or follow extract recipes from some of my brew books from the library (love the library)
Once I have it down and make good consistent beer Then switch to all grain im thinking.

 

[HopSong]

well right now I dunno what im going to do. I am one of those guys that does something then before he really KNOWS HOW tries to improve it prematurely before ever knowing the basics.

Kinda how my mind works.. I'm sticking to LME in a can process for the first few batches.. then on to LME w/steeping grains.. then??

 

[AWKBrewing13]

then all grain my friend!